Published: November 05, 2008 12:23 am      

Cougars run over Bobcats

West Virginia Wesleyan coach Bill Lilly was aware of what day it was. And he felt Mountain State did, too.

The Cougars rolled to a 101-69 victory Tuesday at the Beckley-Raleigh County Convention Center to improve to 3-0 on the season.

“Really, I don’t think we took their best shot in the second half,” Lilly said. “When it’s 0-0, they’re all over you. When they were up by 30 (55-25 at the half), I think they were just trying to get home and see the election results come in.”

Wesleyan came in hoping to slow the tempo but Mountain State was able to cause several turnovers and played hard-nosed defense to turn the game into a track meet for which the Bobcats weren’t ready.

The Cougars reached the century mark for the third time this season behind five players in double figures, led by Andrew Lee’s 22.

“We were able to run our offense and they never were able to dictate the tempo,” Lee said. “That’s what we want to do and tonight we did that.”

Lee had 16 points in the second half, including 11 straight at one point.

“Andrew works hard on every possession,” MSU coach Bob Bolen said. “He’s going to get some stickbacks, he’s going to run and get some (baskets) and he is capable of stepping outside and hitting shots.”

The Cougars showed their prowess from beyond the arc, hitting six threes in the first eight minutes of the game to take a 27-10 lead and Wesleyan never got within 15 after that.

A 16-4 run over the last 5:12 of the first half ended the game, for all intents and purposes.

Anthony Pigram added 18, Tony Brown 13 (all in the first half), Greg Grimes 11 off the bench and Bo Harris 10 and 10 rebounds.

“I thought Tony Brown did a solid job getting us going and running the team,” Bolen said. “We’re trying to teach our guys to work hard every single possession and we’re progressing.”

Former Wyoming East standout Jason Caldwell finished with 15 points for Wesleyan. He had a rough first half, going 0-for-4 and failed to score.

“That’s my fault,” Lilly said. “We got into Beckley at 5:15 (p.m.) and didn’t get in here until 6 a.m. We got stuck in traffic. That kid (Caldwell) has been banged up a lot and we just didn’t have time to get him loose. He got a little warm there in the second half.”

Jeff White had 16 to lead the Bobcats. Neven Zeravica had 13 and 11 rebounds and Ryan Hoehner had 10.

MSU now faces its toughest opponent of the year when it travels to WVU for an exhibition Saturday at 1 p.m.

“It will be the toughest team we face all year, obviously,” Bolen said. “But the great thing about it is, we get to face that competition and when we get on the bus to come home, no matter what the outcome, we’re still 3-0. We know what kind of mountain we face up there. But we’re going to try and climb it.”

“It’s a chance to see if we are as good as we think we are,” Lee said. “It’s an opportunity for us to show everybody else that we’re pretty good, too.”



West Virginia Wesleyan 69

Steve Nichols 1-9 3-6 5, Jeff White 6-11 0-0 16, Justin Caldwell 4-12 5-5 15, Ryan Hoehner 2-8 5-6 10, Neven Zeravica 6-14 1-3 13, Kenny Batson 1-3 0-1 2, Caleb Ashley 3-9 0-0 8, Shunsuke Hatano 0-0 0-0 0. Totals: 23-66 14-21 69.

Mountain State 101

Anthony Pigram 5-13 3-3 18, Tony Brown 5-9 0-0 13, Andrew Lee 9-11 3-5 22, Bo Harris 5-9 0-0 10, Ermin Tarcin 1-5 1-2 3, Adison Mosquera 3-4 0-0 6, Rashad Nesbitt 1-1 0-0 2, Marcus Hunter 4-10 0-0 9, Daniel Scott 0-0 0-0 0, Vedrin Zivic 1-2 0-0 2, Josh Wamsley 0-0 0-0 0, Greg Grimes 5-11 0-0 11, Rod Green 2-6 1-2 5. Totals: 41-81 8-12 101.

Halftime score: MSU 55-25. Three-point goals: WVW: 9-25 (Nichols 0-6, White 4-5, Caldwell 2-4, Hoehner 1-1, Zeravica 0-1, Batson 0-1); MSU: 11-31 (Pigram 5-12, Brown 3-6, Lee 1-2, Hunter 1-4, Grimes 1-7). Rebounds: WVW: 43 (Zeravica 11); MSU: 46 (Harris 10). Assists: WVW: 13 (White 4, Zeravica 4); MSU: 23 (Brown 5). Fouled out: none. Attendance: 1,248.